Fearing revolution, in 1922, Italian King Victor Emmanuel III asked Mussolini to form a government. Mussolini consolidated his control over the government and the army within a few years. He outlawed political parties, took over the press, created a secret police, organized youth groups to indoctrinate the young, and suppressed strikes. He opposed liberalism and socialism. His hold over Italy was never as powerful as Stalin’s grip on the Soviet Union.